oooh oooh ooh I'm on fire

Q had her first field trip for school, and I went as a chaperone. We all walked the kids a little over a block down to the fire station, where we learned about fire safety and got to tour the garage and the trucks. It was fun, informative, and so cute to watch the kids get into it.

q practicing her "stop,drop,and roll"

the kids crawling under the smoke to safety

I love that I am available to attend these trips with Q and be involved with her life. I love it.

You got to live and learn. you got to live and learn.

My little Q started preschool.

 

She was and is so excited about it. She loves to play with kids, and considers them all her
"friends". I think the social part of school may be her favorite part (like someone else I know), but she is enjoying learning as well...and is super excited to show me all her drawings when I pick her up. 

I'm not gonna lie, I like the break as well. It's amazing how much work or errands I can get done in those few hours, leaving me more time to hang out when she is home. 

She has her first field trip this week. We are going to the Fire Station a few blocks down from her school, and I can't wait. She is going to love it. And I am so excited that I am able to go with her. Oh the joys of parenthood. 

Along with the academics she is also learning dance and singing, and will have performances throughout the year and a recital at the end of the year. I can't even contain my excitement for this, and totally know that I will be crying like a baby during her first performance. 

 

sidenote: Since we are talking about school, I thought I would get some advice from you all. Q is having a hard time learning and remembering her letters. I try to go through them each day with her. Pointing them out, going through the sounds, etc. We read books every day, and I try to point out words and letters in everything we do. But she just isn't quite getting it. 

Is this something I should be worried about?

Is there tricks that I should know? 

I know that last year I was worried about her not knowing her colors, and now she is a pro, so I don't know if this is the same thing.

Her vocabulary and conversational skills are outstanding, and she isn't short on words...

so advice?

Take me or leave me

Binky update:

Q slept thru her first night relatively well. she woke up a couple times in the beginning, but after some snuggling she went back to sleep.

the next morning I was feeling good about things. Q went the whole morning without even mentionning her binky.

then.

yesterday afternoon Q found her binky.

yep. it was just as awful as I thought it would be.

The dear girl had volunteered to find mommy's shoes in the front closet, and she came out with her binky. aghhh. I had looked in the closet. twice. Although, I will admit that since there was only 3 pairs of shoes in there, I didn't get down on the ground and really search...I thought a good eye looking would have seen something. Apparently the little bugger was probably hiding under one of my overturned flip flops.

Q was so excited. she was sure her new monster friend had returned her binky. I tried to quickly comeback with a "I think maybe he just accidentally dropped it, but he still needs your binky very badly". she quickly screamed "I NEED MY BINKY".

I tried to calm her down. I took the binky and put it in my pocket. I told her that she didn't need it, and that the monster just dropped it. She kept trying to get in my pocket, crying, wanting her binky. This whole scene looked very similar to a feening crack addict attacking a dealer. As I was trying to calm Q down, I managed to make my way over to the kitchen and slyly putting the binky on one of the high pantry shelves. 

a couple minutes of crying later, I acted like I was going to give her the binky from my pocket. "uh-oh, the binky is gone!". I then played out a whole scene of trying to find the binky again. "where did it go? it was just here in my pocket". Q had stopped crying and was searching with me. Then I said "maybe the monster has magic powers and took the binky again?".

she bought it.

I gave her a starburst to make her smile, and the rest of the day we complained about that darn monster who took her binky AGAIN! She added to the story by saying that he came to earth to take her binky back to his planet, to give to a witch or possibly put it into a machine (the story varied with her). She was sad about the binky loss, but knew that the monster apparently really needed it.

I have since thrown the binky in the dumpster never to return again.

If loving you is wrong I don't wanna be right. If being right means being without you i'd rather live a wrong doing life

Q is coming up on 3 years old, and that means it was time to get rid of the binky. (yes, i chose to wait until after disneyland to take it away).

side story: One of Q's binkies feel into the water at California Adventure. She was devastated. I didn't know how I was going to handle the rest of the day with no binky. Luckily a few hours later, when I went into my backpack to get a snack, I noticed the last remaining binky. phew! q was good for the rest of the day, but man, every time we walked past the water she would say "the ducks stole my binky". yeah, this girl doesn't forget anything, and really holds on to the grudges.

This past week I spent a lot of time researching different ideas. The binky fairy, letting it go in a balloon, stuffing it in a bear, etc.

I had settled on playing up the binky fairy. A beautiful fairy that would come into her room the night before her 3rd birthday, and take her binky(that she lays under her pillow) away, leaving a new toy in exchange. The binky fairy then takes the special binky to a baby in a far away place.  I had Q sold on the idea. I even found  a video online of  a "binky fairy" talking to the kids, telling them that she will be coming soon. Q loved it. She wanted to watch the video over and over. I had talked to her about what present she wanted the fairy to bring her. Q was excited to give her binky to another baby. I was relieved.

Then today she lost it.

I looked everywhere. We live in a two bedroom condo...not a whole lot of space...and yet I can't find it anywhere. Q is devastated. I have searched every inch of this place. I can't find it. We have no more back up binkies. Q finally said "maybe a monster took it" (she has a very active imagination, and monsters have been a recent fascination for her)

So today is the last day of the binky.

it's been a very long day. Lots of ups and downs. She'll forget about the binky for maybe 10 minutes, and then break down like she had just lost it. She was very mad that the monster took it, cause now she couldn't give it to a baby.

It took forever for her to go to sleep for her nap. I let her cry it out. Once she was asleep she slept for her normal 2.5-3 hours. but the minute she awoke she was sad again.

While she was asleep, I wrote a note as the monster.

 

and put it outside her door. 

After the initial "fit" when she first awoke. I brought in the present that was left by her door. I read her the note. She smiled. and ate her candy. She was happy. for 2 minutes. 

Then she wanted to speak to this "monster". the one who so rudely had stolen her binky. I told her that maybe she could talk to her later. 

All evening it's been a series of okay moments, and complete devastation. She keeps saying that maybe her Dora doll can help her find the binky tomorrow....(doubt it Q).  

I think we have a tough road ahead of us. 

We did call the "monster" tonight (kimmy) and q got to thank her for the candies, and tell her to take care of her binky. The monster apologized again, but told Q that she was a big girl and she'd be okay. 

Q wasn't totally convinced. She did say after the call "ah, the monster's my friend."

but a few minutes later she was crying about her binky. 

I have a feeling this pattern of up and down will be a recurring theme for the next oh...20 years. 

p.s. my biggest fear is the minute she is finally okay with no binky life, the darn thing will resurface. It's gonna haunt me. 

A dream is a wish your heart makes...

It had been two years since our last trip to disneyland, and it took every ounce of self restraint not to get down there before now, but we waited and the trip was amazing. We had Jared and his crew, Kim and her crew, me and the Q, and Mitch was even able to fly out for a few days and and hang out with us. It was so much fun. all of the kids were at the best age and it was so great to see the parks through their eyes. Our family is already huge fans of the D-land, but visiting with kids makes it even better.
Now in order to get through this potentially long blog post with some sanity (for both me the writer and you the reader) I will split it into 4 separate posts (1. The characters 2. the rides 3. The family 4. the beach).

Let's go surfin' now Everybody's learning how. Come on and safari with me

One of the days of the trip we all went and hit up the beach at Corona Del Mar. I am torn with my opinion on the beach. I love looking out at the water, and having the waves hit my legs. But i HATE sand. I hate it. I hate the cleaning up process. i hate that is gets everywhere. But Q loves playing in the sand, and loves the water. So I sat in a chair or stood by the water, trying to stay as clean as possible, and just prayed that the cleaning up process on Q wouldn't hurt too much.
But the beach was gorgeous. and everybody had so much fun in the water, and playing in the sand. PLus, I love getting some sun so it was a good day.

You'll be in my heart

Disneyland is awesome. But sharing Disneyland with your family is even better. It was a great trip, and everyone could feel the love. Carson was such a great older cousin, letting the little girls bug him. Mitch was a great fun uncle riding the rides with the kids.
The three little girls played so well together while the adults took turns riding the bigger rides. They were adorable and so much fun. Plus they even got on the same napping schedule, which is made pretty nice during the day.
I love my family.

  

 

 We were planning on buying all the little girls a matching minnie shirt, and Kaiya got a cute pink one. Then, Lindsay came up with the idea to make these cute minnie hair accessories. We were quite proud of ourselves